All I can say is the survey results are a head scratcher and some are ummmm.... haha, wishful thinking and a case of people respond to a survey one way yet they'll do something else. Under "How many would buy an electric car?" the next time they lease/buy a car within the next 5 years, about 40% said they would. Yeah, right with pure BEV penetration rate in terms of new auto sales in the US at 1%, I find 40% way off, even if you include countries where EV adoption is greater.

The EV brand awareness survey is pretty hilarious. Nissan's not even there and look at the others on the list, esp. Toyota.

Kinda on this note, I was at Fry's in Campbell, CA last night, which is basically surrounded by San Jose, Saratoga and Los Gatos and would be considered part of Silicon Valley. The cashier saw I had a shirt from an EVent on saying essentially "buying gas is so last century..." He asked me about it and I said I drive a pure electric vehicle. He asked "which one?" I responded Nissan Leaf (I also had a Nissan Leaf cap on). He remarked he'd never heard of it! He knew of Tesla and made some goofy guess that Teslas and Nissan Leafs were possibly made in the same place. My answer was basically "no, mine was assembled in Smyrna, TN. Tesla's plant is in Fremont (CA)."

Sigh... there are so many Leafs running around in the Bay Area. We have dozens at my work besides tons of other BEVs and PHEVs. Chargepoint HQ itself is in the same city as that Fry's (https://www.chargepoint.com/about/contact/), but arguably it's buried in an business park/industrial area. Near home, I've sometimes headed down a nearby expressway to have 4 other Leafs on the same side of the road going in the same direction, all within a few hundred feet or less of me.

Also, every now and then, I see Nissan Leaf ads on TV. I guess that's why he's a cashier at Fry's?

cwerdna wrote:Kinda on this note, I was at Fry's in Campbell, CA last night, which is basically surrounded by San Jose, Saratoga and Los Gatos and would be considered part of Silicon Valley. The cashier saw I had a shirt from an EVent on saying essentially "buying gas is so last century..." He asked me about it and I said I drive a pure electric vehicle. He asked "which one?" I responded Nissan Leaf (I also had a Nissan Leaf cap on). He remarked he'd never heard of it! He knew of Tesla and made some goofy guess that Teslas and Nissan Leafs were possibly made in the same place. My answer was basically "no, mine was assembled in Smyrna, TN. Tesla's plant is in Fremont (CA)."

My eldest son was here (sporting his "WWED" T-shirt) along with his cousins this weekend and they were talking about my son's Tesla.

I pointed out that my son does not have a Tesla. Instead, he drives a 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid. What he actually "has" is he has given a $1000 interest-free loan to Elon Musk for a car which does not yet exist with no real idea when he might get to purchase the rest of it. He also has no place to charge his Tesla if-and-when he receives it since he lives in a condominium.

I then pointed out that we have been driving an *actual* electric car for over five years now and that we had driven nearly twice the circumference of the world in that time, with nearly all of the fuel for the vehicle being produced via PV panels on the roof of the house.

I can already guess how this survey will go. I run into people nearly every day who discount EVs as an option for increasingly little reason. One couple who asked me how much it cost for me to plug in once thinking I would say some astronomical price and was shocked to hear I had been using nothing but free charging for over 2 weeks.

They became interested because gas has gone up about 30 cents a gallon in last few weeks and they were driving a 15 MPG SUV but immediately dismissed the idea of converting at least partially (one had commute of 50 miles RT, the other roughly 20) because the range wouldn't allow them to go visit their "best" friends who live 200 miles away. I asked them how often they visited their friends and they couldn't even agree on the year of the last visit!

**edit** ok curiosity overwhelmed me and I read the survey and glad I did. After all, laughter really is the best medicine and Congrats to Toyota for engineering what has to be the most effective ad campaign never launched!

Where exactly does one charge on a long-distance EV trip? GM dealership at 50 kW? not fast, not convenient. One station per location? not going to cut it for the masses.

Will Leaf 2 get me out of state? My current Leaf has been awesome. We have a very decent DC charging infrastructure here in the PNW, but I now know I want an EV that can get me out into the rest of the US of A. There's just ONE company doing this right now and ever expanding it's network. a few people agree with me.

finman100 wrote:why would u bother with anything short of this kind of EV? It's a complete gas car replacement, not a town run-a-bout.

Simple. I, like many others here, have more than one car in my driveway. My wife and I each commute in opposite directions, hence we have two cars. The Leaf fits our lifestyle very well. We use it for all local errands and one of our commutes which adds up to about half of our annual miles. Pretty much anytime we go farther than 25-30 miles, we take the CMax. A Tesla would be great to replace the CMax, if I could afford one. Until then, the Leaf is much cheaper, so that's what I have.

why would u bother with anything short of this kind of EV? It's a complete gas car replacement, not a town run-a-bout

It's all relative...

Some people would argue that why would you bother to drive 400 + miles to another state when you can hop on a plane. Does that mean that ICE cars are obsolete too and that everyone should just take a plane everywhere they go. Now that I think of it, I'd love to have a little commuter plane. Hmm, strike that

Speaking strictly as a used Leaf owner in a region where gas is getting crazy expensive, a Leaf is the ideal car for local driving. When I go on longer trips in the summer, I rent an ICE car - kind of like the way people "rent" a seat on a plane for even longer trips

FYI, even after renting an ICE car for when I need it (seldom), I'm still saving over $3K a year on what I used to pour into my 2003 Santa Fe's gas tank.

A Tesla isn't even close to being in my price range, nor is a new Bolt.

In a perfect world, I'd have a $10K EV that goes 400 miles on a charge. I just need to wait 10 years

why would u bother with anything short of this kind of EV? It's a complete gas car replacement, not a town run-a-bout

It's all relative...

Some people would argue that why would you bother to drive 400 + miles to another state when you can hop on a plane. Does that mean that ICE cars are obsolete too and that everyone should just take a plane everywhere they go. Now that I think of it, I'd love to have a little commuter plane. Hmm, strike that

Speaking strictly as a used Leaf owner in a region where gas is getting crazy expensive, a Leaf is the ideal car for local driving. When I go on longer trips in the summer, I rent an ICE car - kind of like the way people "rent" a seat on a plane for even longer trips

FYI, even after renting an ICE car for when I need it (seldom), I'm still saving over $3K a year on what I used to pour into my 2003 Santa Fe's gas tank.

A Tesla isn't even close to being in my price range, nor is a new Bolt.

In a perfect world, I'd have a $10K EV that goes 400 miles on a charge. I just need to wait 10 years

As far as a 400 ish mile trip, and using commercial flights, It would take longer to fly than drive, with all things considered. We should take an Aerocar!

Meh. At this point in our lives we never go further than a couple hundred kilometers and usually less. Not to mention there is good DCFC services in our valley, (some of them still free). A bigger battery would just be a penis size thing so meh.

Having said that when we retire in a few years we'll go with whatever is the medium size battery at the time. Will probably make longer trips then.

I consider myself a tech savvy person, but not necessarily a car guy. I purchased our Prius in 2007, more for the technology than the gas savings. After researching the Prius I discovered it was a very reliable car. 105k miles and 10 years later my experience has born that out.

For the past 13 years I've driven a 98 Camry purchased used, averaging 5,500 miles a year (107 mi a week). I had been toying with the idea of retiring the car soon. A Nissan Leaf was nowhere on my radar. I had even talked to someone a few years ago who purchased one of the first Leafs in our area. A chance meeting with a Leaf owner several months ago changed all that. I realized a Leaf was perfect for my use. A few short weeks later I purchased a 2014 Leaf SV with 8,700 miles for $9,800. In short order I've become a convert. I'll never buy another ICE car.

As EV enthusiasts we need to spread the word. EV's simply haven't gained the attention of the average person, educating them about the benefits of EVs is another matter. I still meet people who are fearful of the batteries in a Prius!